Saddam's Death: Reactions

During last night's Shabbat dinner, my parents and I reflected on the fact that Saddam had been dead for an hour (taking time zones into account, of course). But my parents felt that while he deserved death, the event did not change by even a slight margin the goings-on in Iraq. However, we did agree that it was good for Saddam to be hanged with haste and without alerting the MSM beforehand so that the MSM did not have enough time to do glorifications such as a History Channel-style "The Life of A Dictator" kind of program, even though there might be takes on Saddam's "martyrdom" in the coming day or days, Surprisingly, I've seen none of this just yet.

Some Israeli reactions are quite particularly interesting (as reported by ynetnews), particularly the words of Baruch Marzel, who Efrat Weiss calls an "extreme right-wing activist," that "such will all of Israel's enemies lose their lives...Each dog gets his day. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Saddam Hussein is waiting for you." Now believe me when I say that I hate Ahmadinejad and Saddam as much as any Marzel, but those words are honestly a little over the top and don't support Israel's image as a country of self-defense only.

Personally, I think the Knesset's rep. Yisrael Katz of Likud put it in better terms: that Saddam's death sends "a clear message and a red light to all the leaders of the Middle East who support terrorism and threaten war...Whoever supports terrorism will end up on the gallows."

And then there's the much-under-reported Arab-Israeli view, as put forth by the Knesset's Ahmad Tibi of United Arab List-Ta'al, who said, "Saddam's execution is a sadistic act and a mark of Cain on the American occupation...Even dictators deserve humanitarian treatment." Personally, I don't know why this guy's still in the Knesset after that statement.

Finally, let us hear what Egypt has to say. Its Foreign Ministry spokeperson told AFP that "Egypt regrets the fact that the Iraqi authorities chose to judge the former Iraqi president on the first day of Eid al-Adha." Yeah. This coming from the nation that invaded Israel on Yom Kippur.

Ynetnews also reported that Israelis cannot visit the Temple Mount during this time because of the aforementioned holiday. Okay, so let's take the Egyptian FM's words in perspective. It's okay to ban Israelis from their holy site during a Muslim holiday, but not okay for a genocidal, calculating, menacing maniac to be hanged during that same span of time? Riiiiiiiiight.

And there's something about Spain. Following the Madrid terrorist attack, the Spanish elected the terrorist sympathizers. And following the Basque separatist group (ETA) bombing, the Zapatero gov't suspended all prospect of talks with ETA. It's funny that I'd never thought I'd wonder: why can't we sometimes be like them?

A report has also been issued that Saddam will be buried by his hometown. This is ridiculous. We nab him from supporters, kill him, and give him back to the same said supporters so they can bury him as they see fit. It's kind of hard to put that scenario in any sort of positive light.

Lastly, stoning is being instituted at the Hajj. Come back for more as we see how this plays out...